IOWA CITY, Iowa. - Wichita State's Kellyn Johnson and Sam Chege led the Shocker cross county teams to second-place finishes at the Hawkeye Invitational hosted by the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa on Saturday.
The Shocker women finished behind the University of Iowa, who is ranked 14th in the nation and placed six runners in the top 10 at the Ashton Cross Country Course. The Shockers beat the Pac-10's Oregon State by just two points, but had a decisive advantage over Missouri Valley Conference foe Northern Iowa, 65-85.
“We had a lot of people kicking down the homestretch to help us get points,” WSU head coach Marc Burns said. “We ended up learning a lot today against Iowa, who is nationally ranked, and it is always great to beat a Pac-10 school.”
Johnson continued to establish herself as the lead runner for the Shockers with a third-place finish and a time of 13:57.06. Olivia Martinez and Mica Land finished two seconds apart in 12th and 13th place for the Shockers, while freshman Danielle Walker placed 16th with a time of 14:43.50. Walker, a native of England, made the biggest improvement, bettering her J.K. Gold Classic time by 20 seconds.
“Kellyn ran a solid race up front,” Burns said. “Danielle Walker made a nice improvement, too. She did a great job.”
Jenna Wood rounded out the top five for the Shockers, placing 25th with a time of 14:53.16, six seconds better than her first race of the season.
On the men's side, the Shockers were 18 points behind Iowa, but beat MVC counterpart UNI by 20 points. Cloud County [Kan.] CC transfer Sam Chege led three Shockers in the top 10 with a fourth-place finish. Chege ran a time of 25:31 in the 8K race. Scott Reed and Nick Nowak helped WSU to a second-place team finish behind Iowa with sixth- and seventh-place finishes, respectively.
“The guys took a big step forward today,” Burns said. “Sam Chege ran great. He learned from his race at the JK [Gold] and ran smart, building up and looking strong the whole way. To have these three [Chege, Reed, and Nowak] all up at the front is very exciting for our team.”
Scott Johnson (26:33.94) placed 12th and Hector Castaneda (27:23.06) placed 18th to complete the top five for the Shockers.
Other Shocker Finishers:
- Women -
31. Rachel York (15:09.82)
32. Jessica Stephens (15:15.92)
34. Heather Klotz (15:25.20)
35. Chelsie Baldwin (15:26.81)
37. Megan Gayer (15:35.48)
40. Grace McCarron (15:37.11)
45. Hali Mobley (15:54.09)
49. Ryan Ayres (16:36.49)
- Men -
20. Tad Eisenhauer (27:31.87)
21. Brandon Haist (27:36.44)
22. Jacob Jarvis (28:03.55)
23. Jake Stecklein (28:07.14)
28. Nick Garcia (28:40.22)
--Wichita State--
